LIFE IN PARADISE The population of Pere David's deers, once extinct in China,
has grown to 118 in east China's Dafeng Reserve, after 53 of the animals were
brought from Europe and reintroduced into the wild in 1998

Anti-monopoly Body Launched

The State Council has approved working rules for its newly established anti-monopoly commission, sources with the commission said on September 13.

The commission's responsibilities include monitoring the state of market competition, establishing anti-monopoly guidelines and enforcing the anti-monopoly law.

China's Anti-monopoly Law, which took effect on August 1, aims to protect and facilitate competition. The law encourages mergers and acquisitions that improve efficiency in markets without creating monopolies.

Enforcement of the law will safeguard legitimate interests of all investors, including foreign ones, and prevent malicious mergers of local enterprises by foreign companies at the same time, so as to ensure economic security of the nation, according to a State Council meeting.

Tax for Polluters

The Chinese Government is looking into the possibility of imposing an environmental tax on polluters to encourage them to reduce emissions, said Pan Yue, Vice Minister of Environmental Protection.

Government agencies are currently researching environmental tax options, Pan said at a September 12 forum on sustainable development in China. "They are also studying policies that require compensation for environmental damage, as well as models for trading carbon credits," he added.

To tackle environmental woes in the past decades, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (formerly the State Environmental Protection Administration) has been working with banks, insurers and commerce authorities on policies to accelerate the growth of green industries and firms in these industries, while banning or discouraging those that consume more energy or discharge more pollutants.

Immediate Reports Required

China's top state assets watchdog has required 147 centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to report all work safety-related accidents.

According to a circular issued on September 16, SOEs must compile accident statistics and analyze what caused them in quarterly and annual reports to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

Serious accidents and those that affect the public must be reported immediately.